Daily Devotions

Often, Christians use the language of salvation in a narrower sense, describing only what happens after death. To be sure, it is wonderful to be saved in this way. But, from a biblical perspective, God’s salvation is much more inclusive. We who are saved by God’s grace begin to experience God’s shalom—peace and wholeness, life as it was meant to be—now, even as we anticipate the fullness of shalom that is reserved for the future.

Do you like good news? Well then, I have some for you. Great news, actually! Here it is: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.” Fantastic! In today’s Life for Leaders devotion, we’ll begin to consider in depth what it means to be saved by grace through faith. This verse deserves such careful scrutiny, not only because it is a touchstone of our faith, and not only because it has been so influential in the history of the church, but also because it has power to transform your life.

These words have changed the course of history through their impact on the Christian church. And they have changed the course of millions of individual lives as people heard these words and were transformed by them. Because these words are so important, we will consider them carefully as we make our way through Ephesians 2:8-10. Often, we will stop and pick up a word as if it were an ornate shell found on a secluded beach. We will study it attentively, both to make sense of it and to enjoy it.

God made us alive in Christ when we were dead. In a sense, God even raised us with Christ and seated us with Christ in Heaven, so that we can begin to experience the kingdom of God in our lives today. Why? Why has God done such wonderful things for us? He has done these things “because of his great love for us” (2:4), because of the richness of his mercy (2:4), and because of his grace (2:5). Yet, there is something more.

Your team members came to you with their gifts, talents, and time. They have enhanced your vision, and in some cases even caused it to flourish. And now a few years into the work, one of your stronger team members tells you that they are moving on. What do you do? How do you handle this?

Perhaps I’m stating the obvious, but all work demands effort. Foundational to the promises we make as leaders is that we will give the energy our work requires, even when we feel outmatched and outnumbered. For that reason, I am grateful that the leadership vow from my Presbyterian tradition begins with the question, “Will you seek to serve the people with energy?” While I took that vow as a church leader, the question is equally applicable to other leadership contexts, including, by the way, that of being grandparents!

Through the Spirit, the future is real to us now. Yet, at the same time, we still live in the present, with its pains, sins, and sorrows. We can see God at work today—the future invading the present—yet we also see evidence that the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” is still wreaking havoc in our world. So we live in the “already and not yet.” We experience life as a collapsed telescope, with present and future overlapping.

It’s easy to be confused by the past tense language in Ephesians 2:6. After all, we don’t remember being raised from the dead. And it sure seems like we’re still on earth, not in Heaven. Moreover, elsewhere in his writings, Paul speaks of our resurrection as something that lies in the future. In Romans 6:5, for example… So which is it? Is our resurrection in the past? Or in the future? Or somehow both?

That night during our cabin time, the counselor asked us to share what the night had meant to us. I was surprised when Danny volunteered to talk. “I received Jesus as my Savior tonight,” he said. “I’m happy because I know that from now on I won’t have any problems in life.” At that moment, my heart sank. Danny didn’t understand that becoming a Christian didn’t make life perfect, at least not in this age.